Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Mr. Sun shone beautifully all day yesterday,
and woke up tired and grumpy this morning.
"Shining feels like too much work," he said,
So he stretched out, grabbed a blanket of fog,
covered his head, and went right back to bed.

Friday, January 24, 2014

If, like me, you enjoy reading Yashodhara's blog and have enjoyed her first book, "Just Married, Please Excuse," you would be eagerly awaiting her second book, Sorting Out Sid. (I'm happy to say that I received mine a couple of days ago and it was worth the wait)
It's available now on Flipkart.

Beer costs what it costs, right? And it isn't expensive the way a good wine or a single malt can be.
And what would I know anyway? I'm a fake teetotaller who doesn't drink any form of alcohol, but happily consumes it in cakes and desserts. (That's not really relevant here). The SRE used to enjoy his drinks, including his beer, until a major health scare in 1998, which completely cured him of his addiction to cigarettes, and also put a stop to his consumption of alcohol. It wasn't exactly forbidden, but since he was coming to terms with a new set of rules for his 'new' life, he decided not to drink at all. He would very very occasionally have a can of non-alcoholic beer, just for fun.

Cut to 2010. We were on holiday, one leg of which involved a cruise on the Nile. We would get up early each morning, go and visit the magnificent monuments along the river- all the way from the many many sphinxes in Luxor to the Valley of the Kings to the sheer magnificence of the Aswan Dam. We'd get back to our cruise boat for lunch and a much needed siesta, after our early start and morning of sight seeing in the enervating September heat. The evenings were spent on the upper deck of the ship, watching the sights on the river banks as we gently floated past. I would enjoy a cup or two of tea and cookies, and feel blissfully indolent and totally relaxed, as I absent mindedly read a few pages of my book while occasionally gazing at the river. I think it was the sheer perfection of the setting that awakened the SRE's dormant thirst. The cruise ship had no such thing as non-alcoholic beer, so regular beer it was. A few beers over a few days in a perfect setting were enough to change the habits of the past twelve years.........

Aswan Dam

The beer seed was sown. Once the holiday was over, beer became a part of our lives once more. Which was all very well, but for its effect on the SRE's waistline. The suit he had worn a few months ago became unwearable by the time he had to travel abroad the following February. A new business suit was tailored for him, with the requisite margins. However, the margins cannot keep up with the impact of the beer on the waistline, so expensive suits have become a recurrent motif in our lives. Our driver inherited a couple of them, some have been reserved so that the younger son can get them altered to his size. And so, to my great chagrin, the hidden costs far outweigh the actual cost of beer.......
Cheers!

Tuesday, January 21, 2014

My older son is thirty four today.
This is his second birthday as a married man, his first as a prospective father.
I can imagine him as tender, gentle and protective towards his yet-to-be-born daughter, utterly charmed by her.

And then I see him as I first saw him, through the hospital nursery window, with one eye closed, one open.
I was terrified.

The next time I saw him, it was the other eye that was open, to my great relief!

Babies can terrify you.
Their well-being becomes the focus of your lives.
Each sneeze and rash and fall carries so much angst, and so much useless and unnecessary guilt.

Babies, though, are tougher and more resilient than you think they are.

Dear Anand, your life will change in unimaginable ways, as did ours.
Enjoy these few months of prospective fatherhood. And then the utterly exhausting magnificent chaos of early parenthood!

My son, the householder, the husband, the teacher, the father-to-be, the player of many roles.
May this birthday bring to you a wonderfully joyous and fulfilling year.
God bless you, now and always........

Thursday, January 16, 2014

Half of January is over, and no post.
Life has been busy, what with a nephew's silver wedding celebration, a friend's daughter's beautiful beach wedding in Goa, and a slew of weddings this week/weekend.
The house is a mess.
Too much to do.

So much to write about.......
Bear with me, dear blog and blog readers, we shall meet again soon.